Laser spectroscopy and cooling of Yb+ ions on a deep-UV transition

We perform laser spectroscopy of Yb+ ions on the 4f14 6s 2S_{1/2} - 4f13 5d 6s 3D[3/2]_{1/2} transition at 297 nm. The frequency measurements for 170Yb+, 172Yb+, 174Yb+, and 176Yb+ reveal the specific mass shift as well as the field shifts. In addition, we demonstrate laser cooling of Yb+ ions using this transition and show that light at 297 nm can be used as the second step in the photoionization of neutral Yb atoms

Know Thyself as You Know Thy Enemy: Setting Goals and Keeping Focus When Mediating IP Disputes

Therefore, while we briefly discuss the expected improvements to the mediation process following the enactment of the Uniform Mediation Act, we want to put aside the reality that mediation can work in some situations and instead focus on identifying and overcoming various impediments to a successful mediation. Specifically, we want to address two points: (1) the importance of defining realistic objectives for the process, and (2) the importance of staying focused on obtaining those objectives

Selecting an Appropriate Damages Expert in a Patent Case; An Examination of the Current Status of Daubert

The determination of damages is a critical part of any patent case. As a plaintiff, maximizing awarded damages, whether financial or injunctive, is the ultimate objective of the patent case. As a defendant, minimizing or preventing any awarded damages is the ultimate objective. Multimillion dollar verdicts in patent cases are now the norm and hundred plus million dollar verdicts are becoming more frequent. A lawyer who fails to devote sufficient time to this critical component of a case does the client a disservice. There are generally two types of damages in patent cases: lost profits and a reasonable royalty. A patent owner may seek either lost profits or a reasonable royalty, or a combination of both, as long the recoveries do not overlap. The determination of patent damages awarded is a question of fact, and numerous damage theories exist within the broad categories of both lost profits and a reasonable royalty to help answer that question

Determinants of physical activity promotion by smoking cessation advisors as an aid for quitting: Support for the Transtheoretical Model

Objectives: Physical activity (PA) can reduce cigarette cravings and aid quitting but little is known about its promotion by smoking cessation advisors. This study aimed to: (1) determine the extent to which smoking cessation advisors promote PA; and (2) examine the relationship between PA promotion as a cessation aid and advisor characteristics and cognitions, within the Transtheoretical Model (TM) framework. Methods: Self-report surveys assessing PA promotion, TM variables, advisors’ own PA levels and demographics were completed by 170 advisors in England and Scotland. Results: Advisors reported spending 29 minutes promoting PA over a 6/7-week clinic. Those in later stages of readiness for promoting PA as a cessation aid and those spending more time promoting PA held more positive beliefs regarding pros and cons, self-efficacy, outcome efficacy and importance of PA within smoking cessation. Time spent promoting PA and stage of readiness were strongly associated. There was a trend for the more physically active advisors to promote PA more often. Conclusions: About half the advisors promoted PA and TM variables predicted this variability. Practice Implications: PA promotion among smoking cessation advisors may be facilitated by enhancing self-efficacy, outcome efficacy and pro and con-beliefs related to PA promotion

Verification of microarchitectural refinements in rule-based systems

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=5970511&tag=1Microarchitectural refinements are often required to meet performance, area, or timing constraints when designing complex digital systems. While refinements are often straightforward to implement, it is difficult to formally specify the conditions of correctness for those which change cycle-level timing. As a result, in the later stages of design only those changes are considered that do not affect timing and whose verification can be automated using tools for checking FSM equivalence. This excludes an essential class of microarchitectural changes, such as the insertion of a register in a long combinational path to meet timing. A design methodology based on guarded atomic actions, or rules, offers an opportunity to raise the notion of correctness to a more abstract level. In rule-based systems, many useful refinements can be expressed simply by breaking a single rule into smaller rules which execute the original operation in multiple steps. Since the smaller rule executions can be interleaved with other rules, the verification task is to determine that no new behaviors have been introduced. We formalize this notion of correctness and present a tool based on SMT solvers that can automatically prove that a refinement is correct, or provide concrete information as to why it is not correct. With this tool, a larger class of refinements at all stages of the design process can be verified easily. We demonstrate the use of our tool in proving the correctness of the refinement of a processor pipeline from four stages to five.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (NSF (#CCF-0541164)

Readiness to use physical activity as a smoking cessation aid: a multiple behaviour change application of the Transtheoretical Model among quitters attending Stop Smoking Clinics

Objective: Physical activity (PA) reduces cigarette cravings during smoking abstinence. However, little is known about quitters’ use of PA. This study aimed to: (1) determine the extent of quitters’ past and current use of PA as a cessation aid, while attempting to quit; (2) examine the relationship between use of PA and quitter characteristics and cognitions, within the Transtheoretical Model framework. Methods: Self-report surveys were completed by 181 smokers attending Stop Smoking Services in England and Scotland. Results: Twenty-two percent of quitters reported currently using PA to control their smoking, and 35% had used it during a previous quit attempt. Those in a more advanced stage of readiness for using PA as a cessation aid, held more positive beliefs regarding self-efficacy and outcome efficacy. Conclusion: Quitters were more likely to use PA to help them quit when they had greater belief in their own ability to use PA and in the efficacy of PA to help them to quit, and were also meeting weekly PA targets for health. Practice implications: Strategies by stop smoking advisors that aim to enhance client self-efficacy and outcome efficacy beliefs regarding PA as a cessation aid may help to increase the use of this behavioural strategy, since it seems that most quitters do not use PA